GOES-16 data posted on this page are preliminary, non-operational and are undergoing testing

Hurricane Gert, a Category-1 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale, is over the open Atlantic Ocean east of Cape Hatteras. It is close enough to the USA, however, that it is within GOES-16’s CONUS domain where 5-minute sampling is routine. The animation above shows all 16 channels from GOES-16 ABI, every five minutes from 1912-2132 UTC on 15 August 2017. A distinct eye is not apparent in the visible or infrared satellite imagery, but microwave data (from here) suggests an eye is present, at least at times. A comparison of 2035 UTC DMSP-16 SSMIS Microwave (85 GHz) and 2045 UTC GOES-13 Infrared Window (10.7 µm) images can be seen here.

The low-level Water Vapor imagery, below, shows that Gert is south and east of a front along the East Coast. This front should steer the storm to the north and east. Swells from the storm will affect the East Coast however.

* GOES-16 data posted on this page are preliminary, non-operational and are undergoing testing *

With a Severe Thunderstorm Watch in place, storms developed over far northeastern Colorado late in the day on 02 August 2017 which produced hail as large as 2.0 inches in diameter (SPC storm reports). Since GOES-14 (which had been placed into on-orbit storage as a spare satellite) was briefly activated for testing and evaluation, it afforded the unusual opportunity to view these storms from 4 different GOES perspectives (above). The Visible images (0.63 µm for the 3 legacy GOES, and 0.64 µm for GOES-16) are displayed in the native projections for each satellite.

A closer look using a higher image zoom factor (below) helps to demonstrate the advantage of higher spatial resolution with the GOES-16 0.64 µm “Red” Visible band (0.5 km at satellite sub-point, vs 1.0 km for the 3 legacy GOES) — especially for clearly identifying features such as thunderstorm overshooting tops. Also note that the 3 legacy GOES visible images do not appear as bright as those from GOES-16; visible imagery from GOES degrades with time, and older GOES Imager instruments do not have on-board calibration to account for this. However, the GOES-16 ABI instrument does have on-board visible detector calibration, so dimming of visible imagery over time should not be as noticeable.

* GOES-16 data posted on this page are preliminary, non-operational and are undergoing testing *

An isolated thunderstorm that was moving eastward across Maryland just after Midnight on 24 July 2017 intensified as it crossed Chesapeake Bay, eventually producing a waterspout which moved onshore near Bay City (just southwest of Stevensville/Bay Bridge Airport, station identifier KW29) — this tornado was responsible for 1 injury and EF2-rated damage (NWS Mount Holly PNS | SPC storm reports). GOES-16 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm) images (above; also available as a 23-Mbyte animated GIF) showed that there were 3 distinct “pulses” when cloud-top infrared brightness temperatures cooled to the -71 to -75º C range (lighter gray pixels embedded within dark black regions) before the storm produced the tornado at 0529 UTC. Since one of the default GOES-16 Mesoscale Sectors was providing coverage over the eastern US, imagery was available at 1-minute intervals.

A comparison of 1-minute GOES-16 vs 15-minute GOES-13 (GOES-East) Infrared Window images (below; also available as a 17-Mbyteanimated GIF) provided a convincing demonstration of the value of more frequent image scan intervals for monitoring severe convection. The improved spatial resolution of GOES-16 Infrared imagery — 2 km at satellite sub-point, vs 4 km for GOES-13 — also allowed for a more accurate depiction of cloud-top IR brightness temperature patterns and values.